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As part of ongoing global discussion over a changing aid landscape, The Asia Foundation co-hosted a national seminar on “Aid, Investment and Accelerated Development in Timor-Leste,” in cooperation with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) with support from the Australian Government. The seminar presented emerging research from ODI which explores how developing countries are navigating shifts in development assistance and the volatile nature of aid in fragile states. Read more about the seminar and opening remarks from General Secretary of the g7+ Secretariat, Helder da Costa.

More than a week after the first incident, a well-publicized series of events rubbing China and the Philippines up against each other while at sea continues. Briefly stated, a Philippine patrol plane spotted Chinese fishing vessels at Scarborough Shoal and a Philippine vessel investigated and found that they had harvested protected species.

It is always exciting to be able to take a break from program implementation to think more deeply about the theories that underlie development practice on the ground. That is of course the whole point of a teaching sabbatical, and it is what we both enjoyed about the “Experts’ Roundtable on Local-Level Justice in Conflict-Affected and Fragile Regions.”…

Having discussed the reality of decentralized politics in the Philippines, and the fate of political families at the local level, the question might well be asked, “How is political power at the national level acquired?” Under the 1987 Constitution, presidents are elected for single, 6-year terms (with no re-election).

Today, March 28, the Center for Global Development hosted an event exploring the Partnership for Growth (PFG), which is an initiative by the United States government to try new strategies to work with select countries for broad-based economic growth. The Philippines is the only country in Asia selected…

Given that I’ve written that kinship is the idiom of social organization in the Philippines, it’s probably not surprising that when asked for one book to read about the Philippines I often recommend An Anarchy of Families: State and Society in the Philippines, edited by Alfred W. McCoy.

Religion is once again in the headlines about the Philippines as 600,000 members of the home-grown Iglesia ni Cristo (INC – Church of Christ) held a prayer rally in Manila yesterday. Meanwhile, Catholics cheered the Vatican’s formal announcement last week that the second Roman Catholic Saint from the Philippines…